The Magical Holy Woman Seraphina - Chapter 73

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Magic Saint Seraphina
Episode 73
Chapter 8. A Heart That Cannot Bring Itself
“So the Magic Saint did something again this time, right?”
“Probably. She smashed the Clock Tower in the Square, didn’t she?”
“Someone saw that judge running to the Capital Guard a few days ago.”
“She claimed to have suffered emotional distress.”
“Said some bandit-looking man was chasing her.”
“But the Magic Saint can’t actually be a bandit, right?”
“…Or can she?”
Hazel asked in a serious tone, “Has anyone actually seen the Magic Saint?”
No!
I’m not a bandit! I cried out inwardly.
“A bandit who wears a short skirt and leaps across rooftops while calling herself a ‘Saint’…….”
……
“How disgusting….”
No, that’s not it!
“B-but!”
Ellie, a Magic Saint devotee, interjected.
“If you look at the back-view photo from last time, she definitely seems to be a woman!”
Well done, Ellie!
“Could be a small man, though.”
“Huh?”
“A man so tiny you’d mistake him for a woman.”
“Um….”
“A tiny man who wears a short skirt and leaps across rooftops while referring to himself as a ‘Saint’…….”
……
“How disgusting….”
No, that’s not it…….
“I’m grateful you helped Ellie, but…….”
……
“How disgusting….”
No…….
I was on the verge of becoming a dirty person no matter what I did.
“No, that’s not right, ladies.”
A boy standing in front of us turned around and joined the conversation.
“I saw her last time at the Amusement Park in Everland, and the Magic Saint is definitely a woman!”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. She had bright, radiant blonde hair just like Knight Arden, who was running with her.”
“Ooh.”
“Both of them had such sparkling blonde hair—they looked so perfect together!”
So they chase each other, and they even shoot at each other, and then they fall in love! The boy spoke with a dreamy expression, clasping both hands together.
……
I absently touched my black hair, which I’d tied up roughly into a bun.
Blonde matching with blonde, of all things.
This boy doesn’t even know basic color combinations.
Isn’t black hair supposed to go best with blonde…….
Not that I’m saying Arden and I go well together or anything. Just that, in general.
Just…. that’s what I think………………………….
Or maybe it can’t be helped………………………….
“Maybe I should dye my hair blonde too!”
The boy looked forward again after dissatisfied tugging at his own green hair.
……
I tapped the ground lightly with the tip of my shoe without saying anything.
Seeing me like that, Ellie and Hazel’s voices suddenly grew louder.
“So she really is a woman—now I’m even more curious! What exactly did the Magic Saint do to that judge to make him change his attitude!”
“Right! Hahahaha!”
“I wish the Magic Saint were here so we could ask her!”
“Hahahaha!”
“The Magic Saint’s blonde hair is pretty, sure, but honestly, what does it matter if her hair is brown or gray? Knight Arden’s feelings are what matters!”
“That’s right! Isn’t that so, Seraphina?”
Ellie jabbed me in the ribs with her fingers.
“What matters is what Arden thinks, right?”
“Mm.”
It wasn’t as if I’d turned moody just from hearing someone say that blondes look good together.
They seemed to be watching my reaction, likely thinking Arden and I were something more than we actually were.
I pulled my hand away from my hair and burst out laughing. “Ha ha ha!”
“Exactly! Arden hates the Magic Saint anyway!”
“That’s right!”
“Last time I saw him he called her a pervert!”
“Yeah!”
The problem was that pervert was me.
“Anyway, doesn’t this feel satisfying? Those judges who hand down rotten verdicts really ought to experience it themselves!”
“Exactly what I was thinking!”
“I heard a lot of noble women have switched to the Magic Saint’s side because of this case.”
My father isn’t nobility, but he’s the type who empathizes with them—he used to tell me not even to mention the Magic Saint, but it seemed this incident had changed his mind. That’s what Hazel said.
“When you have a daughter of your own, you can’t treat it like someone else’s problem.”
“My father’s the same way.”
‘I’m glad they see it that way.’
In truth, no matter how I looked at it, I felt uneasy about appearing to have interfered in the trial result, despite not being a magistrate.
But when the defendant in that case appealed the verdict and it went to the Final Appeal, the court unanimously added another five years to the sentence.
It seemed the judges had felt something when they saw that ruling that day.
I take back what I said about judges being my least favorite profession, Your Honors.
“But this store’s line is really long.”
I craned my neck forward past the line that wrapped around the alley.
“We’ve been waiting over an hour and still can’t even see the shop entrance.”
We’d managed to line up our day off together, the three of us, but at this rate we’d spend the entire day just waiting.
“Seriously, they’re raking in money like it’s nothing.”
“I’m jealous.”
Ellie and Hazel, who’d echoed my sentiment, craned their necks forward alongside me.
What are we doing right now?
(That I broke) the Clock Tower sits in the Square, and across from it is where we’re standing in line—at a famous gelato shop.
It’s the same place where Judge Cameron bought melon-flavored gelato last time.
It was popular then too, but nothing like this—something must have happened in between.
“I thought there wouldn’t be many people since it’s winter.”
“Seriously, eating ice cream in summer is amateur hour. The real pros eat it in winter.”
“Even so.”
After waiting an hour and a half, we still hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the shop entrance—that was pushing it.
“At this rate, it’ll take a solid four hours just to get inside.”
“Maybe that’s why some people come and line up the night before to get gelato here.”
“Wow.”
That’s impressive.
“This won’t do. I’ll run to the shop next door and grab some crepes. We can share and wait.”
“You can’t do that, Seraphina.”
“Why?”
“Outside food isn’t allowed here.”
“Not even for people in line?”
“No….”
“And if even one person leaves the waiting line, everyone has to start over from the beginning.”
……
……
……
“Want to share my scarf?”
“All three of us?”
“Sure!”
So we wrapped Hazel’s long scarf around the three of us, and after waiting a good while longer, we finally emerged onto the street where the shop entrance came into view.
But then.
“Hey! What are you doing right now?!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I got distracted for a moment.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it!”
How are you going to compensate me for this!” the enraged young man shouted.
At his feet lay a gelato, half-eaten.
It seemed an elderly man passing by had struck the youth while engrossed in conversation with his companions, never seeing him.
“Oh, dear boy. I’m so sorry. My husband moves slowly, you see.”
The elderly woman beside him grasped the youth’s elbow, her face contrite.
“I’ll pay for it, so go buy yourself another gelato, alright?”
“Don’t you dare speak to me that way!”
Let go!
Thwack! The man wrenched his arm from the old woman’s grip with brutal force.
“Oh my!”
The elderly woman staggered backward, nearly falling.
“Do you understand how long I’ve been waiting to eat this?!”
Pay me and I’ll buy another? This isn’t worth ten times that amount!
Spittle flew from his mouth as he raged, a flash of madness crossing his eyes.
“Tch!”
The man hurled curses at the fallen grandmother before vanishing into the Alley.
“Honey! Are you alright?!”
“Grandfather… grandfather….”
The grandmother struggled to rise, but the grandfather’s strength seemed to fail him.
As she tried to push herself up, the old woman suddenly pressed her hand to her chest.
She’d been badly startled; her breathing came in ragged gasps.
“What do I do… someone, someone please….”
The grandfather, supporting his wife, turned to the people lined up in front of the shop.
“Someone… please help us….”
But no one stepped forward.
They stared at the gasping grandmother and pleading grandfather as though witnessing something bizarre, whispering among themselves, or else simply pretending not to see.
The boy with green hair standing ahead of us in line muttered to his companions.
“That’s what you get for not watching where you’re going.”
“Why are you speaking casually?”
“He underestimated a young person. Looks like he finally picked the wrong target.”
“If he’d done that to me, I’d have smeared that gelato all over his head.”
“He was wrong first, though.”
“Forget it. It’s not our problem.”
…….
Something in the crowd’s eyes had shifted, hadn’t it?
“Grandfather!”
While I stood frozen, Ellie bolted forward.
Only then did Hazel and I snap back to ourselves and rush to the elderly couple.
“Are you alright? Can you stand?”
“Do you need to go to the hospital?”
We helped the grandmother to her feet and looked around for someone else to assist.
“Excuse me.”
The green-haired boy called out to us.
“Are you sure? If you leave the line now, you’ll have to start over.”
Haven’t you been waiting for over three hours? the boy asked.
…….
…….
…….
The three of us exchanged glances for a moment.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
We helped the grandmother away from her place in line.
As we left the Square, the other people simply stood in line as though nothing had happened.
The shop owner didn’t even come out to look.
Tick… tick… tock.
Only the heartbeat of Luaire, the heart I had broken (I apologize), creaked and turned within me.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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